Olympic star and 1968 invasion protestor Věra Čáslavská dies

The sad news was announced on Wednesday that the most successful ever Czech
Olympic athlete, Věra Čáslavská, died at the age of 74. She had been
battling cancer of the pancreas. The gymnast will be remembered not just
for her medals but for her protest against the Soviet bloc invasion of
Czechoslovakia at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Věra Čáslavská, photo: CTK
Věra Čáslavská had already made her mark on the global sporting scene
before the Mexico Olympics which were staged just two months after the
Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 to crush the reforming
movements in the country. Čáslavská had won a silver medal with the
Czechoslovak team in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

She won gold, silver, and bronze medals at the world championships in her
home town Prague in 1962 and went on to do even better with two golds at
the event in 1966. And at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 she took home gold
medals for the combined all around, vault and beam competitions and was one
of the stars of the competition and a big hit with the Japanese audiences.

In the heady atmosphere of Mexico, which she compared to a bull ring,
Čáslavská did even better with four golds, adding the top medals for the
uneven bars and floor exercise to her tally. She was regarded as the queen
of the Olympic competition.

Věra Čáslavská at the Mexico Olympics 1968, photo: CTK
The Czech gymnast said later she had set her heart on winning as many
golds as she could, often in competition with top Soviet gymnasts, to
protest her country’s invasion. But Čáslavská wanted to make the point
on the medals podium as well when both the Czechoslovak and Soviet anthems
were played. She pointedly turned her head down and away from the Soviet
flag when the bombastic anthem was played at two of her medal ceremonies.

Věra Čáslavská told Czech Television in an interview earlier this
year, when already battling cancer, that the first time around her protest
was an impromptu reaction to the unloved anthem:

“All of a sudden my hairs stood on end and I automatically turned my
head not to the ground, because the flag was quite low and I was on the
podium, but perceptively to the side away from the occupier’s flag. It
was understood by the Western journalists and at home by ours as well. The
gesture was on the borderline of what was acceptable. The International
Olympic Committee could have easily disqualified me if it had gone even the
slightest bit further.”

But it was not so much that gesture but another decision before the
Olympics, to sign one of the key documents of the so-called Prague Spring,
2000 words, which called for reforms beyond those which the Czechoslovak
Communist Party was willing to concede, which got her into trouble.

Věra Čáslavská in 1964, photo: CTK
After Mexico, Čáslavská was put under intense pressure to withdraw her
signature. Unlike some other famous personalities, she refused and paid a
dear price. At one stage she was reduced to being a cleaner. She was later
even banned from this work for fear that her treatment would become known
in the West.

Věra Čáslavská returned to the forefront of public life after the
Velvet Revolution in 1989, turning down offers such as ambassador to Japan
or Mayor of Prague, and opting to become an advisor to the new president,
Václav Havel. She was outspoken for the values she cherished until her
death.